In a room of random stranger, where 5 of the 10 were sex workers, including porn actors, a paid escort and a webcam host, could you spot the sex workers? Video production company Cut asked four people to interview 10 strangers and do just that. So from the start, everyone had a 50-50 shot of guessing correctly. But still they’d didn’t really do better than 50-50. Think you can do better?

The debate around a new law in Alaska, Alaska’s House Bill 73 and Senate Bill 112, to prevent policers from engaging in any sexual contact with hookers has gotten really silly, on both sides. It is the first law of its kind in the nation, where police may engaged in limited sexual contact but not sex (Michigan was the last state, only a few months ago, to outlaw police fucking prostitutes before arresting them). The argument on the prostitutes’ side, according to a statement by Amnesty International, is that police catching sex workers by having sexual contact is a human rights violation: “Such conduct is an abuse of authority and in some instances amounts to rape and/or entrapment.” “It’s incredibly traumatic to be tricked into having sex with someone who stops in the middle and puts you in handcuffs and takes you against your will to be locked up in a jail cell,” said Terra Burns, one of the founders of Community United for Safety and Protection (CUSP), a group of current and former sex workers, sex trafficking victims, and allies. “Women have told me that years later they still have PTSD symptoms when they see a police car.” We bet a lot of criminals have PTSD after their arrests.

But the police aren’t doing much better, saying they have to touch a prostitute’s tits are they can’t make a case. “(In an undercover investigation) they ask one simple question: ‘Touch my breast.’ OK, I’m out of the car. Done. And the case is over.” Anchorage Police Department Deputy Chief Sean Case told the Alaska Dispatch News in a hypothetical example. “If we make that act (of touching) a misdemeanor, we have absolutely no way of getting involved in that type of arrest.” Seriously? Are cops that stupid? Bust the Johns, and have them turn on the tricks. It ain’t that hard to get an address, and watch a bunch of Johns go in an out of a hotel room, arrest them and get them to flip for a lighter sentence. We have at least watched enough Law & Order to figure that one out.

But the Alaska Attorney General’s Office said it makes no difference whether the new law passes. In a letter to legislators sent in January, Alaska Assistant Attorney General Kaci Schroeder said: “It is neither legal nor acceptable for a law enforcement officer to engage in sexual conduct with a person that that officer is investigating.” She explained that if this happened, the officer would be fired, decertified, and likely charged with a crime. Though, the reality is that doesn’t happen. Either way, we don’t see this doing much to help prostitutes or clean of the reputation of the police. So what’s the point?

We love those progressive liberals and libertarians up in New England, especially upper New England states, like Vermont and New Hampshire. Vermont was the first state to start the gay marriage movement almost 15 years ago. Now New Hampshire may be starting a legalization trend of its own, legalizing (or decriminalizing) prostitution. New Hampshire representatives Elizabeth Edwards, Amanda Bouldin, and Carol McGuire introduced House Bill 1614 that seeks to decriminalize prostitution in New Hampshire. “This is groundbreaking,” said Maxine Doogan, President of the Erotic Service Providers Legal Education and Research Project. “The criminalization of prostitution is a failed policy. The ‘War on Sex’ hasn’t stopped anyone from buying or selling sex, but it has caused a lot of collateral damage, to poor women, women of color, and trans women. It’s about time that the government stopped intervening in what consenting adults do in private.” New Zealand decriminalized prostitution in 2003, so the United States is ripe for a progressive state experiment. You gotta love New Hampshire for stepping up and taking one for team USA. Maple syrup, cheese, and hookers. Sounds like a good vacation to us. Here’s to hoping to see more pictures like this one, coming out of New Hampshire. Car dogging’ it, dawg!